The vastness, power, and beauty of the natural world is a mind-boggling force to be reckoned with and wonder to behold. Always there, just under or beyond our comprehension, the universe and its planetary manifestation keep us honest, even when we don’t mean to be. Who hasn’t stopped in their tracks to marvel at a seed sprouting, a bird nesting, or a moon rising?
The Lowest Pair — comprised of Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee — certainly have. Though Winter recently spent several months working at a research station in Antarctica, nature has long figured into her songwriting. This track, “Shot Down the Sky,” was one she wrote some years back as a folk song, but ended up doing it with her pop-punk project for a while before circling back around to it for the Lowest Pair’s new album, The Perfect Plan. Between the plucky banjo, plunky bass, sorrowful steel, and shuffling drums, the tune feels as organic as the ideas it conveys.
“It’s about the sky falling. The idea of wanting — or what you think you want in a moment — going for it, and then exploring the fascinating aftermath,” Winter explains, adding. “And it’s about letting go of expectations, acceptance. But really the imagery of being on the ground with the moon and stars all around is what drove my lyrics. The literal idea of the sky falling, but like out of a kid’s picture where the land ends an inch up from the bottom of the page and the sky is just that top trim of the paper. And all the little balls and suns come tumbling down.”